Oppenheimer, J. Robert

Oppenheimer, J. Robert (1904-1967), American physicist and government adviser, who directed the development of the first atomic bombs.

Oppenheimer was born in New York on April 22, 1904, and was educated at Harvard University and the universities of Cambridge and Göttingen. After serving with the International Education Board (1928-1929), he became a professor of physics at the University of California and the California Institute of Technology (1929-1947), where he built up large schools of theoretical physics. He was noted for his contributions relating to quantum theory, the theory of relativity, cosmic rays, positrons, and neutron stars.

During a leave of absence (1943-1945), Oppenheimer served as director of the atomic-bomb project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. His leadership and organizational skills earned him the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1946. In 1947 he became director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, serving there until the year before his death. He was also chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) from 1947 to 1952 and served thereafter as an adviser. In 1954, however, he was suspended from this position on charges that his past association with Communists and so-called fellow travellers made him a poor security risk. This action reflected the political atmosphere of the time, as well as the dislike of some politicians and military figures for Oppenheimer's opposition to the development of the hydrogen bomb and his support of arms control; his loyalty was not really in doubt. Subsequently, efforts were made to clear his name, and in 1963 the AEC conferred on him its highest honour, the Enrico Fermi Award. Oppenheimer devoted his final years to the study of the relationship between science and society; he died in Princeton on February 18, 1967. His writings include Science and the Common Understanding (1954) and Lectures on Electrodynamics (published posthumously, 1970).